Ecole d’Humanité

About Us

Surrounded by the awe-inspiring peaks of the Swiss Alps, our international school is home to students and teachers from 25 different countries. The stunning natural setting provides a wholesome learning environment and exceptional opportunities for hiking, skiing, climbing, and other outdoor activities.

The academic program at the Ecole aims to promote meaningful understanding rather than surface knowledge. Students take three academic subjects per trimester, allowing them to concentrate on each one with special intensity. Small classes (student-teacher ratio is 4:1) allow for individualized instruction and demand active participation. The Ecole is an official testing center for the College Board SAT exams. The Ecole offers a broad range of Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and students can prepare for exams leading to the AP International Diploma and entrance to universities around the world. Recent graduates have been accepted to Oxford, Brown, NYU, Oberlin, Smith, Reed, Exeter, Kings College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and to the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Students are not “marked” with grades, but instead receive extensive feedback from their teachers based on their papers, tests, and oral presentations. They assess their work in regular written reflections that help them come to see their education as a personal responsibility.

Our 130 students live in fifteen “families.” Each family is headed by two or three teachers and lives in one of the school’s chalet houses. Families eat together and spend one evening a week together playing games, cooking, or working on projects. Living in a mixed group including students of both sexes and various ages and cultures helps everyone to see beyond stereotypes and appreciate individual differences. The comfortable atmosphere in the families helps new students feel at home more quickly.

Students at the Ecole take charge of important tasks such as organizing weekend activities, delivering firewood, taking care of the goats, and running the library. Some are active in the Student Council or peer counseling. Everyone participates in the weekly school meeting, which is chaired by a student. Here students can address individual and community concerns, learning to find their voices within a public forum.

The Ecole d’Humanité strives to realize a simple, environmentally responsible lifestyle. By limiting material and electronic consumerism, we create a space where students can engage directly and honestly with other people, with our common cultural heritage, and with the natural world, and where they are free to discover and explore their unique strengths and passions.

To balance the intensive academic program students devote afternoons to the arts, sports, and practical work, selecting from eighty possible courses. Blacksmithing, skiing or snowboarding, woodworking, pottery, rock-climbing, the annual Shakespeare production, classical, jazz, and pop music ensembles, instrumental and voice lessons, gardening, and animal husbandry are just a few of the fields students can choose to explore in their afternoons.

Twice a year the entire school sets out in small groups on 4- and 6-day hikes into the mountains of Switzerland and Italy.

Our School Program is accredited by AdvancED, and our Outdoor Program is accredited by Safety in Adventures. We are the only school in Switzerland to have earned this accreditation for outdoor education safety measures.